Awareness as Transformative
Handbook of Transformative Philosophy January 1, 2026 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-00622-6_6 via Springer Nature
Summary
The chapter discusses the concept of awareness, highlighting its philosophical challenges and significance in various aspects of human life. It covers the historical transformative power of awareness in Western thought, analyzes contemporary philosophical issues surrounding its definition, and outlines its role in themes like wonder, imagination, and happiness, as well as in meditation and self-transformation.
Study at a glance
| Key finding | Awareness is a transformative concept that plays a crucial role in various philosophical themes and practices. |
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Abstract
This chapter explores the concept of awareness: what it is, why it is philosophically problematic, and how it is presupposed in almost everything that matters to people. This chapter has three parts. The first part explores the history of the transformative power of awareness in the West. The second part employs analytic philosophy to explore meanings and problems of defining awareness and related problems in contemporary philosophy of consciousness, e.g., the so-called hard problem. The third part sketches ways awareness plays a transformative role in themes addressed in the remaining chapters of this collection (wonder, imagination, will, decision, experience, understanding, feminist consciousness, love, self-esteem, meaning, and happiness), plus three related roles: in meditation, aspiration, and transformation itself.